Photos by Pesi Fonua, Adrienne L. Kaeppler, Peter Poulsen, Linny Folau and Mary Lyn Fonua.

Visitors to Tonga's coronation enjoyed an afternoon of traditional entertainment featuring joyful displays of Tonga's Masterpiece the Lakalaka, and other dances performed in a bright sunshine at the Mala'e Pangai on August 2.

The guests who had attended a luncheon at the Royal Palace walked over to the shelters at the Mala'e Pangai for the last big event in several days of coronation celebrations.

The traditional dance entertainment featured thousands of dancers from all over Tongatapu.

The Tongan Lakalaka was declared as a world masterpiece by Unesco in 2003 under a programme to protect and preserve "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity". The Lakalaka is the only performing art in the South Pacific to be recognised as a masterpiece.

Other dances performed on August 2 included the Tafi, a sitting dance; the Ma'ulu'ulu a sitting dance, the Soke, a stick dance; the Kailao, a war dance; and the Ta'olunga, a solo dance. High ranking young women and men were the vahenga, or chief dancers placed in the centre of the front row.

See More Lakalaka [2]